I played the first chapter eight times now and did not win once. My best games were when I tried a combination of corn and bread. In the last game I could even convert the bread and had then enough food but only a score of 27.

(5 cards on the food factory, 1 card on the corn fields)

I feel like I loose too much rounds, because I have only building that produce uneatable things (so I change my cards every round in phase one until I get lucky). The events that let my use the production chains are also just 1 or 2 rounds too early.

I managed it with the butcher shop and food factory. It is only two cards but with a chain you can transform all wheat into cows and eventually into meant (that is sold for 7).

I aggressively mulligan for wheat each turn. Aim to produce the cow and dump your wheat. Next turn mulligan for more wheat and repeat. I only used the food factory when the event lets me use all production chains.

Once I had the engine going I was swimming in money and would spend the building just to get VPs

I concur with the difficulty! I've played it twice, lost twice, and haven't reached even 2 of the 3 end-game goals yet (closest was 25/32VP and 35/40 coins; I got the 1 fist each time). That last game I really pushed for the food factory, but I was VERY lucky in that it was in my hand at the start of the game. If, like in my first game, you get NO butchers shops and NO food factories in your hand AT ALL for the ENTIRE GAME despite dumping you hand lots, there's not a lot you can do.

(I still enjoy the challenge though, you just have to acknowledge that some games luck won't be on your side)

The key to success are production chains, e.g. bread:If you get to build a mill (wheat) and bakery (bread) you should be able to get to 40 food without problems: Try to save 5 coal ro game end.There are 3 event cards which lets you use 1 or all production chains, one at the end of the game. So try to produce 5 wheat - this can be done in 1 round if you produce 2 wheat and have 3 grain in your hand to use your production chain. 5 wheat + 5 coal means 10 bread, each worth 4. If you get the food factory, you can turn those 10 bread to 10 food worth 8 with the last event.But you can also build other production chains and invest in corn fields early on.

Ah, that's good to know. I thought you need to have a mixture of all four demanded foods to win.

I thought exactly that on my first try; it's not obvious on the cards that it doesn't have to include at least one of each.

ramigaber wrote:

Can I still convert money into victory points in the end?

That's what I've been doing, as otherwise I wouldn't be anywhere near the VP requirement. But I can see an argument for saying you have to pay off the food and coin requirements (removing those goods from their piles) BEFORE then calculating the coins-to-VP...

The key to success are production chains, e.g. bread:If you get to build a mill (wheat) and bakery (bread) you should be able to get to 40 food without problems: Try to save 5 coal ro game end.There are 3 event cards which lets you use 1 or all production chains, one at the end of the game. So try to produce 5 wheat - this can be done in 1 round if you produce 2 wheat and have 3 grain in your hand to use your production chain. 5 wheat + 5 coal means 10 bread, each worth 4. If you get the food factory, you can turn those 10 bread to 10 food worth 8 with the last event.But you can also build other production chains and invest in corn fields early on.

I tried exactly that in my last plays, but it still requires some luck to get the building cards and to be able to produce grain in the first place. I was always able to produce the food when I did this with my highest priority, but that the VP were not enough. I might ignore the corn in my next games and try to hoard more grain and coal. I'm not giving up and I love this game especially with the expansion.

That's what I've been doing, as otherwise I wouldn't be anywhere near the VP requirement. But I can see an argument for saying you have to pay off the food and coin requirements (removing those goods from their piles) BEFORE then calculating the coins-to-VP...

That's what I've been doing, as otherwise I wouldn't be anywhere near the VP requirement. But I can see an argument for saying you have to pay off the food and coin requirements (removing those goods from their piles) BEFORE then calculating the coins-to-VP...

If you're lucky enough to draw the right cards and get the right chain going early on you can get the needed gold easily.The bigger problem is the needed 32VP.You have 10 turns in the first chapter to get 32VP, it means more than 3VP each turn!!!Let's say you get the 2 assistants in 2 of these turns and get 4-5VP in those turns, buying also the needed watchtower.In the remaining 8 turns you need 23VP, it's a big amount of points, an average of a 3VP building each turn, spending at least 7 gold each time and it means at least 56 gold.And the thing is you need to be very lucky to get such cheap buildings. Many times you happen to have only very expensive buildings in your hand...I cannot see a win happening more than once every 10 games and really only out of luck of the draw.

It's not an easy solitaire, but that makes me want to play again, even if luck a big say in every game.

Try to make 10-15VPs with leftover goods(=50-75$ worth of goods) at game end. Of course after paying the food.

I've never had $50 left over at game-end even BEFORE paying for food, and that's including when playing multiplayer with the base-game too. Man, I'm bad at this game. Still, it drives me to play it again to try to beat it!

Getting a working production chain AND having enough cards in hand to take advantage of the 3 chain production events is tricky.

My best goods total so far was 62 (mill to bread plus cornx2) with 20VPs from buildings/assistant. Unfortunately that translates to just 24VPs when the 40 goods are removed.

The initial temptation is to use the charburner production chain early on but the bonus from this is minimal due to the drastic reduction in hand size for little early value. I've taken to only using chain production if it allows an essential purchase or helps contribute to an established chain (eg, 2 flour no coal, so drop two on the char burner in leiu of making bread). otherwise the cards are better in hand to give more draw options for buildings.

This leads into the other problem; the luck of the draw in trying to establish food-only chains. I've had games making mills and getting food production in hand but no money to pay for it or no bakery for bread. Similarly the butchery route seems even harder to secure albeit more lucrative. Corn can easily make the required food target, but the lack of production chain hamstrings the overall VPs. Ensuring 2VPs per turn from buildings is doable but the final total would need to be 100 goods (40 of which food) assuming 20VP from buildings/assistants (with at least one watch tower).

1: I start with 7 coal and 5 cards. I have a Weaving Mill on my hand, which I want to build this turn: costs 8 and needs 2 wood and 2 clay to produce.Event: 3 suns; I manage to produce 2 coal and spend 8 of my 9 coal to build the Weaving Mill. I did not put wood into my charburner to save my cards. And also I don't need coal at the moment.

2: Event: +2 cards if you don't build this turnSunrise: Only 1 of my 4 resources of the Mill turns up. But I have 2 clay on my hand, so I place my worker orderly to my MillSunset: 2 needed goods turn up - lucky, so 1 pay 1 from my hand and produce 2 fabric. I use my production chain und produce another 2 fabric out of 2 wool. I choose not to build and get 2 cards, so have now 8 cards and 4 fabric. Going well, I need a cloth factory.

3: Event: New buildings introduced: watchtower and Corn Farm. I need more wool for my Mill production chain, I exchange my hand and draw another 2. Bad luck: No wool, no food chain, however a cattle ranch. But this one needs wool to activate and I'm sure I will be short of wool. Sunrise: Enough wood, but 2 clay missing. I have them on my hand, so I work orderly in my Mill.Sunset: None has shown up, I pay 2 clay, produce 2 fabric, have no wool in my hand and build a corn farm with a colour fitting to the assistants in the display.

4: Event: Nice, Tony Merz sees that I'm struggling and gives me a good. I take fabric. I exchange my hand and hope for some wool and/or food production chain -> Got 3 wool, one is a tailor shop. No food production yet.Sunrise: Good luck, 2 clay and 1 wood show up, I work orderly in my Mill. I want to build the Tailor shop.Missing wood shows up, I produce 2 fabric and use my production chain with 2 wool. I now have 8 fabrics; I produce my first food on my corn farm. I pay 2 fabric + 1 corn for my Tailor's Shop.

5: Event: Use all your production chains. Hmm, I only have 1 coal, need some more for my Tailer's Shop. I exchange my cards, till have 7 cards left meaning good chance to find something I need -> got a bad mill, which needs 3 grain to work. Grain is what I will need for my Mill-production chain, not good. But I also have a bakery in hand now. Maybe I build this first and keep on searching for a Mill.Sunrise: No wood. But I need to start my charburner. I work there orderly.Sunset: No wood.I pay 1 wood to produce 2 coal. I have another wood in my hand, so I use the production chain. I produce 1 corn. I pay 3 fabrics + 1 corn for my Bakery. This was a difficult decision becaus now I only have 3 fabrics left, can't use my production chain that often.I carry out the event and use my production chain producing 6 cloth out of 3 coal and 3 fabrics.

6: Event: Immediatley use 1 production chain or draw 1 card. Bad luck, I just used all my chains, So I take 1 card. I exchange my cards and hope for a mill. But no mill in my hand.Sunrise: 2 stones are flipped, can't do much with them. Could go to my Tailor's Shop, which needs 2 stone but also 3 wool. But it's very unlikly that 3 wool turn up and I want to keep my cards together to search the deck. I work orderly in my charburner. Trying to pile up some coal for my Bakery.Sunset: Oh no, 3 wool turn up. Would have been 2 Cloths! Still, I get 2 coal in my charburner and 1 corn. I have to stop to spend corn. I put 2 wood into my charburner, having now 5 coal.I build my second corn farm with 2 cloths.

7: Event: 3 suns in phase 3.I exchange my hand waiting for a Mill -> Bad luck, no mill. Alread have 9 cards now.Sunrise: Nothing special. I go to my Bakery and work sloppily.Thanks to the Event I manage to produce 1 bread and of course my 2 corns. I build a watchtower and can buy an assistant.

8: Event: You get 3 coal if you don't take 2 cards. I need the cards, no option for me. I still don't have a food production chain yet, and we are already in round 8! Again I exchange my 9 cards and drawing 2. Now having 11 cards and finally: 2 Mills. And also other yellow cards, even a Food Factory. That was a good one. Do I have enough time and money?Sunrise: 2 Clay + 1 wood. Excellent, I go to my Weaving MillPhase 4: I produce 2 corn and 2 fabrics. My assistant nothing. I build my Mill for 4.

9: Event: I can exchange an Assistant. I keep my hand and draw 2.Sunrise: Only grain and wood turns up. I go to my Mill, work there orderly.I was successful, I produce 2 flour and produce 4 more with 4 grain from my hand. Still keeping my food factory, which I build now. It costs 21, I pay with 3 cloth, 2 fabrics and 2 corn. I will have enough food, I don't need so save the corn anymore. But I don't have enough money for my assistant this turn, I don't want to spend any coal, flour or bread, which will become worthy food next turn.

10: Event: Use all production chains. I have some wood in my hand, no grain. I will keep my hand as I will be short in coal and need wood for my charburner.Sunrise: Only 2 cards show up. I work sloppily in my Bakery.-> Did not work out. I produce 2 corn, 1 coal (with my Assistant). I buy the Assistant and build another Watchtower.Time for the production chains: I put my wood as coal on the charburner. I turn my 6 flour together with 6 coal into 12 bread. I had 1 left, so I turn them into 13 food.I hand in 5 food worth 40 coins. I still have 8 left plus some coal=13 VPs. Buildings and Assistants sum up to 27VPs. Together 40 VPs.

Summary: If I had not gotten the food Factory in turn 8, I would be at 29VPs. But I could use this my money in an other way. I think 32 VPs would have been possible. Producing went well, especially in the first turns. I think it's important that your first building needs wood (which is the most common resource) and a resource, which is not used for the production chain.

Great play summary, Alexander! Helps a lot to see how to progress through.

What I took from your session report is:

- Getting a lot of cards into your hand, both to hopefully get a big production building AND to get goods to feed into production chains, is really important, especially as swapping a large hand of cards at the start of Phase 1 then gives you more chance to get what you need in your hand.

- The 2 assistants that come out at the start of the game probably need to require matching to a small number of buildings (2 or 3) to be purchasable early on (or else you have to wait to swap them as soon as that respective event comes out). All 3 of my plays so far I've had two 4-building- or 5-building-requirement assistants come out, and had to wait until around turn 8 or 9 to swap them for lower requirement ones as I just couldn't build matching coloured buildings AND decent food-producing buildings to fulfil the assistants' purchase requirements. That really scuppered me in my 3 plays, but it seems assistants aren't necessarily a game-breaker if you don't get any out until late on, and/or they don't help produce much, as your session report shows (they seemed to fail to produce things more often than they succeeded).

- The Corn Farms - I didn't realise you could choose which one to build!; I thought it had to be the one on top of the pile (as the event says to stack them in a pile next to the assistants). I don't think that would necessarily have helped me much in my games so far, but as you say it helps match the assistants' colours.

Overall, I think I just need more practice, and concentrate on getting cards into my hand (so holding off driving production chains at times, which I always want to do so I have the cash later on to buy the more expensive food-producing buildings).

Thanks for the playthrough.I played it just yesterday and lost again, but I felt it was very close. I tried the cow meat strategy, because I had all the needed building in my starting hand. Unfortunately I had a round in which I was not able to produce or buy anything, because there were only 5 cards in the market and I had spent my money in the previous turn. I think this 'lost' turn might have cost me the remaining VP.

I wanted build my meat buildings fast to be able to switch my hand cards thereafter. I did not get any of the corn fields, because I think they are not worth the 8 gold, if you build them very late in the game. The assistants were also hard to get (because of the missing corn fields ) and I bought them very late only for the VP.

Quote:

I think it's important that your first building needs wood

I will keep this in mind for my next game.

Question:I question popped up in this last play, because I had only meat as currency and I had to pay 7 for an assistant that costs only 4.How do I pay for an assistant and a building in the same turn? Are these two separate transactions or can I pay them at once?

I started with those 2 assistants: All 5 colours; 4 green (I think so). I exchanged the second one againt all 4 colours except black. They bring you a lot of points for not so much money.

I think this is another mistake I make. I always change the 4 or 5 card assistant to a two card assistant, because I think I am not able to get the colors or the money. Better planning could solve this

Thank you so much Alex for taking the time to post a detailed play through. It was really helpful!

I think I've been restricting my production by avoiding using non-food production chains. In my head it didn't seem viable but it makes perfect sense to get an early purchasing chain separate to the food chain.

Also helpful insight into utilising wood and a non production chain resource for the early buildings.

Your comment 'got a bad mill' made me smile. I did noticed the cost of those is cheaper, and knew they were harder to use, but didn't go so far as to call them bad. However they will now forever be known as the 'bad mill' and 'bad smelter'.

Question:How do I pay for an assistant and a building in the same turn? Are these two separate transactions or can I pay them at once?

I've assumed they are a combined cost, so although individually you don't get change, you can buy a building and an assistant as one transaction. Being able to buy both on a turn is a change in the rules between the base game's v2 rules and this expansion, though ironically goes back to the v1 rules where you could buy a building and an assistant on the same turn. I might just check was the original rules said to see if it clarifies it...

EDIT: Checking the v1 base-game rules, they say:

Quote:

Assistants: After or in place of building, you can hire at most 1 Assistant per round

That would imply you have to fully complete the building purchase transaction before buying an assistant. But I agree it's not clear in the expansion rules, and could do with being clarified.

Question:I question popped up in this last play, because I had only meat as currency and I had to pay 7 for an assistant that costs only 4.How do I pay for an assistant and a building in the same turn? Are these two separate transactions or can I pay them at once?

Question:I question popped up in this last play, because I had only meat as currency and I had to pay 7 for an assistant that costs only 4.How do I pay for an assistant and a building in the same turn? Are these two separate transactions or can I pay them at once?

Utilising the following I was able to get a grand total of 111 goods (86 points worth of food) with 23 victory points from buildings.

Chronological thoughts of winning game (not linked to individual turns)

1. Early game used 'good' (2 wood/2 corn)smelter, jumped on there either sloppy or efficient and sucked up the coal to fund my engine.

2. Used 'good' (2 corn /2 wood) farm and yellow cornfields(to match the first assistant) who was placed on the charburner - allowing better production of iron.

3. Started to focus on farm rather than iron, bought another cornfield, utilising corn and iron goods.

4. Got lucky and drew butcher by turn 5 or 6, was able to comfortably pay with iron goods and corn fields.

5. Got lucky with production - able to produce more iron due to assistant digging up a bit of coal.

6. When new assistant option came - was able to get good 2cost 3VP assistant and put straight on iron smelter.

7. Was looking a bit tight at the end so started purchasing VP rich low cost buildings (brick factory and small watch towers) when nothing better to purchase.

Final score

Buildings/Assistants 23VPGoods(food) 111(86) = 14VP after 40 food taken off

Total 37VP +4 strength

Whoop!

Summary of solo tips for chapter 1 garnered so far (thanks to Alex, Jorl and Nick!)

1. Get money first - get a good (2wood/2X)upgrade to the charburner in the first turn if possible that allows increased efficiency for workers production each turn.2.Dig each turn for the production chain you need. Stick to one, either bread or meat.3.Ensure production chains (for money/food) don't overlap if possible.4.Utilise cornfields and watchtowers when available to help match assistants. If possible get low cost high value assistants (swapping when option to swap arrives)4. Only contribute from hand to a production chain if high value return, required for purchase that turn or part of main production line. Balance this against keeping a hand size to dig and get the right building.5. Get assistants working on the bottom of production chains.6. Consider VP cost of buildings and try to make sure building every turn in priority of early goods efficiency>food production line>assistant match>VP efficiency.

Finally moving on to chapter 2. So happy to get the butcher chain working!